Monday, March 23, 2009

Does Pitt play like Xavier? Or....

...does Xavier play like Pitt? In an earlier post I pointed out how similar I felt the styles of the two teams seem to be. I feel both of these team are defensive stoppers, but if they have to create points in a hurry and go on the run, they will. That's a huge difference between Wisconsin and Pitt. I had a chance to ask Sean Miller at his Monday news conference if he felt the teams were similar. I think he would have told me I was crazy if I happened to be way off base. For once, I must not have been way off.

It's interesting Sean would concede that the stats could be skewed a little because of the differences in competition, and I'm sure he's dead-on right. The Big East was ridiculous this year. But Pitt's plus 9 rebounding margin in Big East play was identical to the Panthers' plus 9 overall. Like Xavier, Pitt played a fair non-conference schedule with games against Siena, Washington State, Florida State, Texas Tech, and the Miami Redhawks. Pitt's only losses came in Big East play against Louisville, Villanova, Providence, and then West Virginia in the Big East tournament.

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